Nicholas Sasson, MD

Family Practice Physician

About Nicholas Sasson, MD

Nicholas Sasson, MD is a family practice physician in Monterey, California with over 12 years of experience. He has worked in various areas of medicine and specializes in treating women’s health, chronic pain, PTSD, depression, and substance abuse. Currently, Dr. Nicholas Sasson is the Medical Director for the Major General Gourley VA – DoD Outpatient Clinic.

Before beginning his medical career Nicholas Sasson, MD attended the University of California – Berkeley where he studied Psychology and Anthropology as a double major. By the time he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, Dr. Nicholas Sasson had been the Principal Investigator in two research projects. He then went on to attend medical school at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. During this time as a medical student, Nicholas Sasson, MD received an HRSA-funded grant to do a Family Medicine rotation in Nome, Alaska. There, he worked at the local hospital and did field research on “Adding Ethnography to the Pre-Doctoral Experience.” He presented this research at the Society of Teachers of Family Conference.

Once he officially became a Doctor of Medicine, Nicholas Sasson, MD went on to complete his residency through the University of California – San Francisco at the Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California. He completed his three-year Family Practice Residency in 2006 and soon began working as a physician.

In his last year of residency, Nicholas Sasson, MD began working part-time at Planned Parenthood as a Contract Physician. There he gained his expertise in treating women’s health issues. Since beginning in 2005, Dr. Nicholas Sasson has continued to work part-time and now trains primary care providers in treating women.

Nicholas Sasson, MD has always worked hard to treat patients and has worked as various healthcare providers simultaneously since the beginning of his career. He began working for the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2006 as a Staff Physician and has continued to hold various roles here since then. In 2018, he became a Fee Basis Physician for one year before taking on the role of Medical Director and Staff Physician in 2019.

He began working at the Natividad Medical Foundation/UCSF Family Medicine Residency in 2008, first as a Faculty Substance Abuse Specialist and in 2014, the RHEDI Director. As the Faculty Substance Abuse Specialist, Nicholas Sasson, MD was responsible for creating the Addiction Medicine curriculum for Family Medicine Residents.

The three-year curriculum he created along with two colleagues was funded by an SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment) Grant from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). This curriculum is nationally recognized as a model implementation of an SBIRT curriculum and is still used as an example today.

As the RHEDI Director, Dr. Nicholas Sasson served as the Director of Reproductive Health Education where he was in charge of training Residents and faculty in comprehensive reproductive health care.

From 2017 to 2019, Nicholas Sasson, MD worked at Cypress Healthcare Partners/Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital as the Staff Physician and Intermittent Acting Medical Director. At this urgent care group, he was a full-time physician where he regularly supervised Advanced Practitioners. He acted as the Medical Director when two other leaders were unavailable and supervised over 50 providers. Here he regularly performed various procedures and became comfortable executing ones such as suturing, incision & drainage, casting, nail avulsions, and PAP smears.

As a current Medical Director for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Nicholas Sasson, MD where he is a primary care provider and supervises a staff of approximately 15 primary care providers. The facility where he works serves more than 80,000 people and employs more 125 people. He is the clinic’s Post Deployment Liaison for returning Gulf War veterans and the designated Women’s Health Specialist.